Feuerstein's Biotech Mailbag

At least G.G. didn't curse. Most of these people type a blue streak. I often have to make sure my daughter's not around when I'm reading my email.

Sorry, G.G., but I don't write for the shorts. I'm opinionated for sure, and sometimes those opinions are negative. I cash a paycheck from TheStreet.com every two weeks, and I don't own or short any stocks, per our conflict of interest policy, which you can read here.

And most definitely, my mother is proud of me. (Hi, Mom!)

As for saying something positive, I like Altus Pharmaceuticals (ALTU) for reasons explained here. Additionally, Onyx Pharmaceuticals(ONXX) looks really good now that Nexavar works in liver cancer.

If Vertex Pharmaceuticals(VRTX) succeeds with telaprevir for hepatitis C, the stock will be huge. Advanced Magnetics(AMAG), and its injectable iron replacement therapy ferumoxytol, has produced some really positive data and could take over what is a growing market.

Finally, an update on my Jan. 16 biotech "homework" column: On Thursday, Point Therapeutics (POTP) announced the failure of a phase II trial of Talabostat plus gemcitabine in patients with pancreatic cancer. The negative result isn't surprising to anyone who followed my research methods in that column.

Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider Dendreon, Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Altus Pharmaceuticals and Point Therapeutics to be small-cap stocks. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.

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